You only gain because you chose not to have a voluntary registration previously. You could have always reclaimed you input VAT.

Thats the whole point, having experience 24 years of VAT returns and escaped with my sanity you would not voluntarily submit yourself to the whole rigmoral again on a very small turnover, however if they insist on at least part of it then I'll go the whole hog and extract what I can from them, I do pity the small trader who operates on a part time basis, probably via eBay and who has no experience of government form filling and compliance to the ridiculous, it takes all the fun out of trading and will wear you down.

If you do have find you have to charge VAT and don't have too many materials to buy, the flat rate scheme is worth a look. Not sure how the scheme works for sales outside the UK (but it does seem to make some kind of provision) as it's never troubled me personally, but you charge say 20% VAT on your sales and pay HMRC a fixed rate of up to 14.5%, depending on what kind of business you're in. You then just do a simple VAT return on line every three months and set up a direct debit for your bill. The world of contracting provides the scheme with many members who shall we say, aren't well equipped to deal with complex VAT procedures

Yes I seem to recall the the flat rate scheme worked on industry averages ?

I personally prefer the standard way where you claim for each invoice separately, lets just say that it gives you a bit more flexibility

Not that I'd put the weekly shopping through as input or anything

It will also allow me to reclaim the VAT on my studio that I'm building, who knows I may even be able to bill myself for its rental, plus VAT ?

Meanwhile back to the Greek tragedy.

So after all the hubris from the new left wing Greek government it looks like the leadership will after all accept the reality of their self inflicted situation. Varoufakis after strutting around the EU telling everybody what he would not accept has now been humiliated. The terms he agreed last Friday included acceptance that the bailout package continues to be set and monitored by the Troika who will freeze the money if they are not satisfied with Greek commitment to economic reform - something that Syriza vowed it would never accept. As the German finance minister said "they certainly will have a difficult time explaining the deal to their voters"

Not quite the way it went but it does seem strange that you celebrate plutocracy over democracy

I am not celebrating plutocracy over democracy at all.

Because Syriza won their election with "looney election promises" does not make this particular bit of democracy more important than all the other Euro zone democratic states who insist on Greece sticking to the unanimously agreed terms of the huge bailouts which rescued Greece from disaster. Why should the taxpayers of all these countries write off the debt of the non taxpayers of Greece?

The Irish government has fulfilled the demands of the bailout lenders with admirable effect and now have returned to economic growth and they insist that Greece should be shown no special treatment. The former communist PM of Slovakia said last week "This is a red line for us. It would be impossible to explain to the public that poor Slovakia... should compensate Greece" Germany and the other countries do not represent a conspiracy of greedy lenders but in fact the taxpayers of the Eurozone which democratically is vastly more significant than the 36% of Greeks who bought the "looney election promises" of Syriza.

I see one of the economic comedians has returned.

Still waiting for answers to legitimate questions, but hey, the humour can ease the wait.

Give him time, he's got to log back in to the right account first.

Nothing wrong with keeping the rugby hat separate from the political one.

So no comments on the U turn of the lefty leadership in Greece then?

So, can we roll back to CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE that the Greek people (or the 95% outside of the top earnings bracket) have borrowed significantly more than the average European (or the 95% outside of the top earnings bracket)?

Oh, and throw in CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE that the Greek people (or the 95% outside of the top earnings bracket) are more corrupt than the average European (or the 95% outside of the top earnings bracket).

Just so we can be sure, ya know.